tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
rlistings vs simulist
A side-by-side editorial comparison of rlistings and simulist — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
rlistings vs simulist: at a glance
What is rlistings?
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
rlistings renders clinical-trial subject listings and paginates them for regulatory output, sitting alongside rtables on the shared formatters engine. The releases in this window are dominated by pagination correctness: repeated key columns across pages, splitting by a variable, ordered-factor handling, column gaps, and font metrics. Development is a large rotating contributor set inside the insightsengineering organisation.
What is simulist?
simulist stopped simulating clean outbreaks and started simulating the mess real surveillance data arrives in.
simulist generates synthetic line list and contact-tracing data for outbreak analytics as part of the Epiverse-TRACE stack. It reached stable status in 0.6.0 and was published in JOSS alongside 0.7.0 in February 2026. Its distinguishing feature is no longer the epidemic simulation itself but the post-processing layer that degrades the output into realistic data.
rlistings vs simulist: editorial side-by-side
rlistings
0.0ANALYTICS
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
◆ Current state
rlistings renders clinical-trial subject listings and paginates them for regulatory output, sitting alongside rtables on the shared formatters engine. The releases in this window are dominated by pagination correctness: repeated key columns across pages, splitting by a variable, ordered-factor handling, column gaps, and font metrics. Development is a large rotating contributor set inside the insightsengineering organisation.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is progressively delegating pagination to formatters rather than implementing it — paginate_listing() was refactored to call formatters' paginate_to_mpfs() directly, and truetype font support arrived through a new formatters API. That reduces duplicated logic but ties the package's page-break behaviour to a dependency it shares with rtables. Feature work beyond pagination is thin: better error messages for unsupported column classes, a cheatsheet.
◆ Prediction
Expect pagination fidelity to remain the focus, with changes arriving as formatters exposes more of its layout machinery rather than as rlistings-native features.
simulist
0.0ANALYTICS
simulist stopped simulating clean outbreaks and started simulating the mess real surveillance data arrives in.
◆ Current state
simulist generates synthetic line list and contact-tracing data for outbreak analytics as part of the Epiverse-TRACE stack. It reached stable status in 0.6.0 and was published in JOSS alongside 0.7.0 in February 2026. Its distinguishing feature is no longer the epidemic simulation itself but the post-processing layer that degrades the output into realistic data.
◆ Where it's heading
The scope moved outward in two steps. 0.5.0 added truncate_linelist() and messy_linelist() to produce right-truncated snapshots and data with missingness and inconsistencies; 0.6.0 added censor_linelist() for grouping dates into intervals with a weekend-reporting effect. The simulation core has meanwhile settled — 0.7.0's changes are interface polish: weighted sex sampling and <epiparameter> objects accepted for reporting_delay.
◆ Prediction
Post-processing is where the recent work is, so further realism controls — additional reporting artefacts or interval schemes — are a likelier next step than new epidemic model structures.
Alternatives to rlistings and simulist
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either rlistings or simulist.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
hoardr
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
gigs
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
datasetjson
datasetjson rebuilt its object model to track the CDISC Dataset-JSON 1.1 schema.
See all rlistings alternatives → · See all simulist alternatives →
Recent activity from rlistings and simulist
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 6mo agosimulistJOSS paper corrections
- 6mo agosimulistWeighted sex sampling and epiparameter objects for reporting delays
- 11mo agosimulistcensor_linelist() adds interval censoring and a weekend effect
- 1y agosimulistPost-processing arrives: truncated snapshots and deliberately messy line lists ⚡
- 1y agorlistingsError and message handling for difftime and zero-row listings
- 1y agosimulistEvery sim_*() argument gains a default
- 1y agorlistingsTrueType font support and col_gap in pagination
- 2y agosimulistInfectious period replaces contact interval; time-varying fatality risk added
- 2y agorlistingssplit_into_pages_by_var() and pagination moved onto formatters
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between rlistings and simulist?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. rlistings and simulist are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is rlistings better than simulist?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. rlistings and simulist are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to rlistings?
Top rlistings alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rlistings alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rlistings for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to simulist?
Top simulist alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "simulist alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/simulist for the full list with editorial commentary on each.